The ecological significance of time sense in animals

Abstract

Time is a fundamental dimension of all biological events and it is often assumed that animals have the capacity to track the duration of experienced events (known as interval timing). Animals can potentially use temporal information as a cue during foraging, communication, predator avoidance, or navigation. Interval timing has been traditionally investigated in controlled laboratory conditions but its ecological relevance in natural environments remains unclear. While animals may time events in artificial and highly controlled conditions, they may not necessarily use temporal information in natural environments where they have access to other cues that may have more relevance than temporal information. Herein we critically evaluate the ecological contexts where interval timing has been suggested to provide adaptive value for animals. We further discuss attributes of interval timing that are rarely considered in controlled laboratory studies. Finally, we encourage consideration of ecological relevance when designing future interval‐timing studies and propose future directions for such experiments.

Quitting while you’re ahead: Patch foraging and temporal cognition.

“…For instance, when patch depression occurs sharply, harvesting a fixed quantity of food in each patch (regardless of how long that takes) can be the optimal strategy (McNair, 1982; Stephens & Krebs, 1986). For animals foraging in natural settings, sensory cues or other information within patches could also provide sufficient information for leaving patches at the right time absent any internal timing processes (Ng et al, 2021).…”

Still stuck with the stopwatch.

“…Nevertheless, these questions (and hence their answers) are informed by underlying computational assumptions, namely, that intervals are well-delineated a priori and that they are timed for their own sake. We have argued extensively that such a situation with clear temporal demands might be rare in reality (for a similar analysis in the animal timing literature see, Ng et al, 2021). Hence, we believe that classical “stopwatch” paradigms by themselves provide insights about computational assumptions that match the demands of the environment.…”

When Associating Numbers of Elements With Their Time Period of Occurrence, the Ants Take Account of the Characteristics of the Elements

“…Concerning the ants, if they have associated time periods with the presence of given numbers of visual cues, odors or any other elements they can perceive, then they can adapt their foraging activity as well as their nest relocation in order to maximize their food collection, minimize the presence of predators, avoid the temporal periods during which the environmental conditions are uncomfortable. The usefulness of time perception and every cognitive ability linked to such a perception have been detailed by Ng, Garcia, Dyer and Stuart-Fox (2021) and underlined by Vasconcelos, de Carvalho and Machado, A. (2017).…”